Category Archives: Environment

The Forest Survey of India (FSI) has been publishing a series of biennial assessment report the forest cover in the country since 1987. The India State of Forest Report is recognized as the authoritative assessment of the country’s forest resources. The India State of Forest Report 2011 is the twelfth report in the series. It …

AVINASH CELESTINE IN THE ECONOMIC TIMES October this year will mark the 10-year anniversary of the Supreme Court banning mining in the Aravalli region in Haryana. It is an anniversary that will be greeted with decidedly mixed feelings among local villagers, but with fondness on the part of the many real estate speculators who have …

PUSHKAR: From a distance, the scraped hill, minuscule in scale, seemed a work of the past. But a closer view revealed the machinations of the mining lobby that works in the quiet of the night. Barely a few kilometres from Pushkar, at Tilora village, adjacent to the eco club, environmental imprints of mining activity were …

The earth seems to have opened up under the government’s feet. One of the oldest industries known to mankind — mining — has suddenly emerged as the deepest pit of scams in India. There are allegations cropping up from almost every mining state, and the figures allegedly plundered add up to the biggest scam in …

Mahadevan Ramaswamy and Ramaswamy R. Iyer IN THE HINDU Those who were impatient with the Narmada Bachao Andolan’s struggle must now re-examine their thinking in the light of the Second Interim Report of the Experts’ Committee set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The Second Interim Report of the Experts’ Committee set up …

By Sushmita Sengupta in Down to Earth 15.06.2009 THE Supreme Court on May 8 banned mining activities in Faridabad, Gurgaon and Mewat districts of Haryana. The ban will be in force till the state comes out with a report on how it will restore the ecology of the 450 sq km area, including the lakes …

V.R. Krishna Iyer Copenhagen saw a global collapse because America is, as ever, controlled by corporate power. Barack Obama’s forefathers called the British Crown’s bluff at the Boston Tea Party, battled it and won the historic American War of Independence. Much later, India fought the same British Crown without arms for swaraj and won its …

While Orissa vigilance sleuths and mines department officials are scratching their heads trying to find out the extent and dimensions of the mining scam, official documents reveal that the magnitude of the scam could be anything over Rs 14000 crore. The Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court headed by former bureaucrat PV Jayakrishnan would …

S. Nagesh Kumar Supreme Court panel seeks views of A.P. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests HYDERABAD: A Central Empowered Committee (on Environment and Forests) of the Supreme Court has found certain “prima facie” discrepancies in the information furnished by Andhra Pradesh on the actual extent of the three mines given in lease to iron ore …